Out of This World
by Worldshifter Fanfiction
Summary: Emily Conner and Joni Bennett, two girls from our world, suddenly find themselves in the world of Star Trek, where they both find adventure, excitement, and a life beyond what either of them could have imagined. And for one of them, a heart may be mended while for the other will find the family she never had. (This is a re-posting.)
1. Chapter 1: New Roommates

This is a re-posting of "Out of This World" originally posted on LadyDawson's page. **Worldshifter Fanfiction** is a co-owned account by **LadyDawson** and **EssentiallyRei** , and LadyDawson gave her consent to allow this re-post.

* * *

 **Chapter One** : New Roommates

"Yeah, so that's one large half-cheese, half-pepperoni, an order of breadsticks . . . and I think that should probably do it," Emily Conner said into the phone, tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear as she tossed a glance over at her roommate. "Hey, Joni, you want anything else?"

Joni Bennett shook her head as she continued typing away on her laptop, finishing up whatever it was she was doing before shutting it down. Her dark brown hair—so dark that it was almost black—swept around her as she disappeared into the next room, her light brown eyes never once glancing Emily's way.

Suppressing a small sigh, Emily briefly wondered if this was as good of an idea as it had seemed this morning, but she finished ordering the pizza anyway.

She and Joni had been roommates for all of one week and this was the first time that they'd actually had the chance to sit down and get to know each other. With their colliding schedules, they just hadn't had the chance. Plus, Joni put up this serious front, never letting anyone in. Over the past week, Emily had tried numerous times to get her to open up, to talk about stuff, but Joni was noncommittal, usually only giving her one or two word answers.

But Emily was determined to try and—at the very least—be friends with her. They were rooming together; they had to live with each other, so the least they could do was be friendly with one another, if nothing else.

So when she found out Joni was free tonight too, she suggested that they have a movie night. Joni was reluctant, but after much persuading from Emily, she finally gave in, albeit a bit unenthusiastically.

Making her way into the living room, Emily replaced the cordless before turning to Joni with a bright smile.

"Pizza should be here in about twenty minutes or so," she told her, climbing onto the couch next to her roommate.

Joni just nodded silently while flipping through the channels, trying to find anything decent.

Emily glanced at the guide. "You find anything worth watching?"

"Not really," she responded without a glance at the blonde. "It's incredible; we have all these channels and there's still never anything on."

"We could always just pop a DVD in," Emily suggested, trying to think of something to suggest, but she didn't know what kind of movies Joni was really interested in. "I've got all six Star Wars movies in my room . . . or not," she added as her roommate looked doubtful.

"I've just seen them all way too many times," Joni sighed, looking slightly awkward—or maybe a tad embarrassed, Emily thought. "But, um . . . we could watch Star Trek. The new Star Trek movies have more action in them like the Star Wars movies. If you're more into action," she elaborated.

"There's one that comes right before the one that just came out in theaters, right?" Emily wanted to know. "Into Darkness, I think?"

Nodding, Joni replied, "Yeah, the one in theaters is the sequel to the 2009 one. I've got the 2009, which is just called Star Trek, in my room . . . if you want to watch it," she added offhandedly, like she didn't particularly care one way or another, but Emily grinned at her, getting the feeling that she actually did.

"Actually, that one looks pretty cool," she said cheerfully. "I was thinking about going to see it. Yeah, let's pop it in."

The corners of Joni's mouth twitched, almost like she was smiling—or at least, she looked less grim, Emily corrected herself—as she stood up, going into her bedroom and leaving Emily on the couch. Only a few seconds later, she was back, a worn copy of the DVD in her hands as she opened it up, popping the disc into the player.

"Bear in mind, though, I might be asking you a lot of questions about this," Emily warned her. "I don't know much about Star Trek."

Joni shrugged. "That's okay," she said dryly. "I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have."

Emily chuckled. "You? Happy?"

Light brown eyes flashing slightly, Joni turned to her. "Watch it," she warned. "I'm not a freaking Vulcan."

"What on earth does the Roman god have to do with anything?"

Heaving a sigh, Joni rolled her eyes in exasperation as she turned back towards the television, flipping through the trailers until she reached the main screen, hitting the play button.

"Just shut up and watch," she complained.

"Yes, ma'am," Emily quipped, settling into a comfortable position and pulling a pillow into her lap as the two girls began to watch, only pausing it to get up and get the pizza when the doorbell rang.

Digging into her cheese half, Emily watched with interest as the handsome main character came onto the screen. "He's cute."

" _That_ ," Joni replied, "is Captain James T. Kirk. Or, he's going to be," she corrected herself. "Obviously, he's not a captain yet. Careful, though, he tends to leave a trail of broken hearts in his wake."

"Let me guess, handsome, street-smart, intelligent rebel without a cause?" Emily said dryly. Joni stared at her. "I've got a type."

"Really? Would not figure you for the bad boys," Joni mused.

"Not bad boys, just . . . rebels," Emily said weakly. Joni shook her head. "That reminds me, if a guy named Adam calls here, just tell him to shove it and hang up."

"Duly noted," her roommate murmured.

With a faint smile, Emily finished off her pizza, setting her paper plate on top of the empty box and settling back against the couch to finish the movie.

Two hours later, when the Starship Enterprise was blasting apart the futuristic ship, Emily glanced over at Joni, only to find that the dark-haired girl had fallen asleep, her hair fluttering every time she took a breath.

Chuckling, Emily turned back to the television to finish watching, glad that she'd given it a chance, if only for Joni's sake. While she had been an avid Star Wars fan since before she could even remember, she had never really gotten into Star Trek, mostly because the few parts she'd seen of the older ones just got too . . .

Well, scientific-y for her taste. But this one felt a little more action-y and a little less science-y.

First chance she got, she decided, she was definitely going to go see that new one. It actually had looked pretty cool, from the trailers she'd seen. Maybe the next time she and Joni had a night off, they would go, she thought as she tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear as she watched Jim Kirk enter the bridge of the Enterprise, beginning to issue orders to his new crew.

He was definitely nicer than Adam, she thought with a scowl, pushing any thoughts of her on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend from high school.

After he'd successfully ripped her heart in two during prom by sleeping with her former best friend, Emily had sworn off guys, determined never to feel the way that Adam made her feel again. She never wanted to feel the heartache and betrayal that she'd felt when she found them in the parking lot, in her own car, without an inch of clothing between them. Time might mend all wounds, but it didn't mend the memory. She hated feeling so empty and hurt and distressed all at once.

Still, she thought as she flipped back a few scenes to watch Kirk again—an unfortunate habit of hers; once she watched a movie, she usually just skipped through to her favorite scenes to watch them again—it was a shame that Jim was only a fictional character; if she could meet a guy like that, someone who clearly cared about people and would do anything to keep them safe and fought for something he honestly believed in, despite all the odds, and went to great lengths to ensure that it succeeded, even though it was basically a suicide mission, and risk his own life for the lives of others . . .

It's was truly a shame, she thought unhappily, that she _couldn't_ find a guy like James T. Kirk. She might actually give him the time of day.

Getting up to get rid of the pizza box, Emily returned to the living room, pulling a blanket around her as she flipped through the channels absently, barely even noticing the drowsiness that hovered around her until her eyelids fluttered closed and then she was asleep, completely unaware of any changes in her surroundings.

* * *

 _Beep, beep, beep!_

Emily groaned slightly, her eyelids fluttering slightly as she heard the annoying, unmistakable sound of an alarm clock beeping irritatingly at her.

"Oh, god, what's that noise?"

Green eyes flying open, Emily spun around quickly to blink into the dark—it was either very dark or very early, she thought, or both—trying blindly to find the source of the noise, managing somehow to turn it off, but that didn't exactly help with the lights. "Where's the lamp?" she muttered drowsily, rubbing her eyes. "Where's the light."

The second that she said 'light,' the lights automatically flicked on, rendering Emily blind for a minute before she regained her sight, glancing wearily around at the unfamiliar room, which appeared to be a dorm of some kind.

Across from her was another girl—or at least, she _thought_ she was a girl until she got a good look at her and realized that:

a) she had a tail and . . .

b) she had unmistakably feline features on her face.

 _What in the . . ._ Emily thought wildly, staring in shock at the half-girl, half-cat as she pushed herself into a sitting position, yawning widely and yes, she thought, she did happen to have cat-like teeth.

"What?" she asked sleepily, opening one eye and noticing that Emily was staring at her. "Oh, great, I have bed hair, don't I?"

"Um… no, no, sorry," Emily said, glancing swiftly around the room and trying very hard not to panic. Where the heck was she? "Weird dream . . ."

"Yeah, right," the cat-girl said dryly, folding her arms over her chest and giving Emily an exasperated look. "He's here again, isn't he?"

Emily blinked. "Who?"

Rolling her eyes, the cat-girl said impatiently, "Don't give me that. Where is he? If he's in the bathroom with his head in the toilet again, just tell me now so I can go to Nyota's room and get ready."

Before Emily could even come up with some kind of explanation—though what she was going to say, she had absolutely no idea—they both heard a loud grunt, followed by a swear, that was coming right from the bathroom. Emily stared at the bathroom door, and then slowly turned to look at the cat-girl, settling for a sheepish grin.

"Um . . . okay, yeah, he's in the bathroom," she said weakly, though she was confused by which 'he' she was talking about.

"Thought so," the cat-girl said unhappily, reaching into one of the closets and plucking out a few items, which seemed to consist of a red uniform, tucking them under her arm as she headed out the door. "Look, Em, I know he's your best friend, but seriously, he spends more time in our dorm than he spends in his own and most of the time, it's because he's dead drunk and you just pulled him out of a bar brawl."

"Yeah, well . . . you know, guys . . ." Emily replied, biting her lip.

"And he's worse than usual," the cat-girl muttered. "What's amazing is how good he actually is." She sighed. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," Emily muttered, her head spinning as she watched the cat-girl leave, closing the door behind her.

Slowly, she looked around at the room, trying to put her thoughts in order. Where in the world _was_ she and more importantly, how on earth did she even get here? The last thing she remembered was . . .

Well, she and Joni were sitting on the couch, watching Star Trek, and then . . . well, she was pretty sure that they both fell asleep. So how exactly had they gotten from there to here? Not to mention where here was.

Taking a deep breath, Emily ran her fingers through her blonde hair, trying not to hyperventilate. "Okay, Em," she muttered, "take deep breaths. You can figure this out."

Hearing a particularly loud groan coming from the bathroom again, she sighed. Probably the best thing—for right now, anyway—was to go see who was in the bathroom. It might be a long shot, but maybe that could answer some questions . . . or not, but it was better than just sitting around, trying to figure out something that she was never going to figure out anyway.

With that decided, Emily got up and walking over to the bathroom. It took her a few minutes to work how to open the door, finally finding the thumbprint on the side of the door, and it slid open, revealing a blond guy with his head in the toilet, just as the cat-girl had predicted, puking his guts out.

"Hey," she said, squatting down beside him, "you okay?"

He just groaned and she sighed, getting up to get him a glass of water and what looked like some medicine from the counter.

Hoping very much that this was Advil or something close to it, Emily handed them both to him. "Here, take these," she told him.

Bright side, she thought, this probably was just a dream anyway, so whatever they were probably wouldn't kill him.

"Thanks," the guy muttered, finally looking up at her with a pair of intense, bright blue eyes, though they looked slightly sluggish due to hangover.

A small gasp escaped from her as she stared down at him, though too soft for him to notice as he took the pills and water from her, downing them both in one gulp. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, even with her own eyes.

Sitting on the floor of her bathroom was none other than one certain James T. Kirk.

* * *

 **LadyDawson:** So this was the beginning of the prequel to Falling Into Darkness. Also, it was the beginning of my journey from Star Wars fan to Star Trek, as I'm sure you can see from the way I wrote Emily. This was a fun chapter to write. Hope you enjoyed our reposting!

 **EssentiallyRei:** This is also the beginning of the magic pizza idea. If we continue more Joni and Em Fanfics in different fandoms, we wanted to use pizza as a running joke as to how Em and Joni may have ended up in a new fandom.

 **LadyDawson:** Oh, yeah, you were the one behind the pizza idea!


	2. Chapter 2: Joni's Awakening

**Chapter Two:** Joni's Awakening

 _Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let . . . Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let . . . Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let . . ._

"Yeah . . . yeah. . . . All right!" Joni said louder every time as she woke up to the communicator chirp on her phone. She didn't remember setting her ringtone as the Star Trek communicator, but it was in her phone somewhere. Someone was calling her.

She reached out her hand, feeling for her phone which was usually under her pillow. It wasn't there. Instead she noticed how different her pillowcase, comforter, and bed sheets were. They smelled strongly of detergent and were stiff like they had been cleaned by industrial strength chemicals; the kind they used in hotels after a guest leaves.

This was not Joni's bed. Granted she had only laid claim to her dorm bed at the university for only a week now, she had brought her own sheets and comforter from home. Familiarity and comfort were very important to Joni.

 _Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let . . ._

Frustrated Joni sat up in the unfamiliar bed and blinked. It was almost completely dark except for a soft pulsing green light at the foot of the bed. Reaching for it, she found it was a tablet of some sort, simply made of glass and a metal handle. Under the pulsing green light that floated on the glass floated the green words: incoming call. She hesitated, but after another chirp from the device, she touched the glass where it pulsed.

The light expanded over the glass into a full colored screen and before her was an image of Zachary Quinto, in all his Vulcan and Spock glory.

"Cadet Joan," he started, revealing that it was more than an image.

 _Joan?_ No one called her Joan. Sure her birth certificate had the name Joan written out on it, but for as long as she could remember everyone, even her family, called her Joni.

Quinto raised his brow in his Spock way. "Cadet Joan, I expected you to be awake by now. Your Plasma Physics course is at ten-hundred hours. You have twenty-three minutes."

Joni stared at the screen like she was watching a YouTube video, not saying anything. It was simply a video; it had to be. Or she was still asleep and this was just an exceptionally vivid dream. She did often have vivid dreams; some even of Star Trek. However most of her Star Trek dreams were of Next Generation. She had never had a dream of the new Star Trek.

"We are still not on speaking terms," Spock said emotionlessly as he glanced away from his screen. He was silent for a moment, tightening his lips in almost disappointment, but not quite. When he looked back at the screen, he gave a firm look with his brown eyes. "Cadet Joan, your presence is required in my office at fifteen-hundred hours. I expect," he emphasized, "for you to be on time. And dressed." His eyebrow lifted again.

It was then that Joni realized she was in her underwear, and Spock could see her like that, leaning over the glass tablet in nothing but a bra and boyshorts, staring down at him. Before she could say anything, the screen minimized and Spock disappeared.

She quickly decided it didn't matter; this was all just a dream, and once she came to that mindset, she jumped up ready to play along.

"Lights," she called out, expecting the lights to come on. When the room illuminated, she smiled and pushed her long hair out of her face, stopping when she began to tuck the strand behind her ear. She touched the top of her ear again and froze—her ear was not round.

No. It curved into a point.

Searching the room, obviously a dorm and almost the exact duplicate of the one seen at Starfleet Academy in the 2009 Star Trek movie, Joni ran into what was the bathroom. In the mirror, she stared at herself with her brown eyes and pulled her hair back. She gasped as she traced her finger over the pointy edges of her ears, but it wasn't a gasp of surprise; more like a gasp mixed with disbelief and excitement.

She let out a laugh as she came out of the bathroom to examine her surroundings more closely. There was another bed on the other side of the room, empty and completely made like its occupant had already gotten up and left. Yet that entire side of the room was also untouched with no personal effects of any kind. Did Joni not have a roommate?

Maybe not, but the two things that were certain to Joni in this strange dream of hers were:

a) she was a Vulcan.

And . . .

b) she was a cadet at Starfleet Academy.

* * *

After a few minutes of fiddling with the glass device in her dorm, Joni had figured out how to use it quite efficiently. It was a lot like any tablet used in the real world. Except the operating system was clearly different and instead of the internet, the tablet connected to the Starfleet database. It gave her access to almost every piece of information she could hope for in a dream where the world was completely unfamiliar.

Okay, so maybe not completely unfamiliar. Joni knew a thing or two about Star Trek, and secretly, she did consider herself a Trekker—not Trekkie. All though, she never understood why some fans found the term Trekkie to depreciative. Trekkies were supposedly the crazy ones; Trekkers were the rational ones. It didn't make one bit of difference to her. A greater appreciation for Star Trek should be all that mattered.

In any case, any Trekker or Trekkie would have a panic attack if they were holding what Joni was holding in her hands; the glass tablet was a goldmine to any Star Trek fan.

In the end, after Joni had put on her red cadet uniform, it had taken her far more than twenty-three minutes to get ready. The cadet uniform was somewhat of a puzzle and she did have to play with the glass tablet before she found a map of Starfleet Academy in the database. It was the first dream that she had to work so hard to get where she needed to go.

Eventually she looked suitable for making her way across the academy. She looked better than cosplay and had even spent an extra ten minutes on her hair, putting it up into a bun to Starfleet standards; which she looked up on her tablet along with codes of conduct. Joni was already going to be late, so she figured she would take her time before leaving the dorm.

She left her dorm with her trusty tablet in hand, headed not for her class, but willing to do some good old fashion exploring; it wasn't every night that you went to bed and dreamed of Starfleet Academy. She decided she would start with the area listed on her tablet as the Central Quad. It was between the Command School and Medical School. Her quarters were apparently not far from either, which was well-off—Starfleet Academy was enormous.

It was upon entering the Central Quad that Joni saw and immediately recognized Captain Kirk. But it wasn't Captain Kirk. It was Cadet Kirk and he was in a red uniform like the hundred others walking to and from the buildings. He was standing and talking to another person she recognized: Leonard McCoy. Or better known as Bones—just Bones. How she recognized the both of them among the mass of red, she did not know, but she suddenly got the instinct to turn around and walk the opposite direction when Kirk made eye contact with her, brushed past Bones, and started jogging in her direction.

"Oh, no you don't," he hollered, catching up to Joni. "You can't get away that easily. You stood me up, Miss Vulcan."

Joni stopped, turned, and diagnosed Kirk. His eyes were a beautiful bright blue, but his face was sporting a few scratches and bruises. They looked fairly fresh, but she could tell that someone had done their best to patch him up. Yet the glassiness of Kirk's eyes also told Joni that he may be hung-over.

"I thought Vulcans couldn't tell lies," Kirk said with a smirk. "Do you have any idea what happened when you didn't show up last night? A few of my Tactical buddies caught up with me. I had no choice but to get more acquainted them."

"We had a date?" Joni asked very un-Vulcanly.

Bones now walked up to the two of them and Kirk gave him a side-glance and a chuckle before saying, "Can you believe this? I get stood up by a Vulcan and all she says is "We had a date?""

Bones critically looked down at Joni. "You were going to go out with this man?" indicating Kirk with a nod. "You have questionable taste for a Vulcan. Any _human_ who goes out with this half-excuse of a decent guy has questionable taste, too."

"Thanks, Bones." Kirk responded sarcastically, lightly taking Joni by the arm and away from Bones.

"So are you going to help me, or not?" he whispered, leaning in close to Joni when they were out of reach of Bones. Kirk sounded desperate, though; not interested in romantics at all.

Joni looked back at Bones, who was shaking his head and walking away, before she looked back at Kirk. "What was it that you needed my help with?" she said un-Vulcanly again. To Joni's knowledge, Vulcans didn't ask questions that sounded so stupid, but Joni really had no idea what was going on. This was a dream after all.

"The test," Kirk declared. "Are you really trying to play it off as you never saying you would help me find a way to beat your brother's test?"

"Wow, this is some weird dream," Joni blurted. She wasn't very good at this role-playing a Vulcan thing. "I mean I've had dreams with you in it before, but not this version of you. Your eyes are so puppy-dog-like. How could anyone say no to you?"

"Wait, wait." Kirk started to laugh. "You have dreams about me? Is that why you stood me up; because you actually like me?" He smiled like he was flattered. "I have to admit, I've never considered pursuing a Vulcan before."

"I'm not into the Kirk-types," Joni daringly replied. She wasn't lying, but she wasn't telling the truth either. How was it that her roommate Emily described him: handsome, street-smart, and an intelligent rebel without a cause. That made Kirk sound perfect, but Joni knew he was one disaster after another—one beautiful and dangerous, but also extremely lucky man.

Kirk flashed another smile. "Am I famous now?"

"You said my brother's test," Joni suddenly realized.

"Yeah," Kirk eyed Joni suspiciously. "You know, the other you," he teased. "The one with equally as pointy ears, but shorter hair and a more cocky and pretentious attitude than a Vulcan can account for. I mean, I've never met the guy, but I've heard academy stories from his students. Instructor Spock, or Commander, or whatever he is."

Kirk didn't notice that Joni was dumbfounded. Joni had gone to a completely different place. It was more than surprise, it was complete _geekdom_. She had awoken in her dream as Spock's sister.

"It's amazing that you two are twins. You are nothing like how I picture him," Kirk went on.

 _Twin sister!_ Joni was Spock's twin sister. It was more than Joni could handle. She started walking away with the one thought that she needed to go back to bed.

Kirk caught up to her again and apologized. "I didn't mean to offend . . . I guess you call it your Vulcanality."

Joni chuckled at that one, but then decidedly, and in a very Vulcan manner, said, "I cannot help you cheat on the Kobayashi Maru."

"Cheat? Who said anything about cheating?" Kirk insisted. "I just want a few pointers. Look, Joan, wasn't it? Your brother's test seems to be the cheat. Or did he program a way to beat it? …Or not?" He stared at Joni with his puppy-dog eyes, looking utterly hopeless—beaten up, but determined.

"I'm going to say this extra slow to make sure you understand." Joni smiled at Kirk—a very un-Vulcan thing to do. It seemed to scare Kirk too, because he returned a puzzling frown. "I. _Cannot_. Help you . . . cheat," Joni finished.

She now carefully watched Kirk as he stared at her with an intense thinking face. It didn't take long for a twinkle to appear in his eyes. He knew exactly what he had to do.

* * *

 **EssentiallyRei:** It took me forever to figure out how I was going to write the communicator chirp on Joni's phone/tablet. I'm still not sure about what I settled on. I do like Deedles though. It's not a word, but it should be because everything these days _deedles_. The future especially.

 **LadyDawson:** Sounds better than anything I could come up with, EssentiallyRei. Yeah, you had such a hard time choosing which species you wanted Joni to be. Wasn't it between Romulan or Vulcan?

 **EssentiallyRei:** It would have been illogical to put a Romulan at Starfleet Academy in 2258. So yes, I went with your advice to make Joni a Vulcan. ( _Rom-oo-lin "You got numb-tongue?")_ That scene cracks me up every time.

 **LadyDawson:** Though we did use that idea further in the story, when Em and Jo finally talked for the first time.


End file.
